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My Alien Plasma

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  My Alien Plasma I made two digital artworks, each with a different approach. The first, Alien Plasma Neo, uses advanced digital editing to show a highly detailed energy being. The second, Plasma Alien, is a gestural painting that focuses on raw emotion. My interest in the 'energy being' theme comes from a lifelong curiosity about forces and life forms beyond what we usually see. I find energies and unseen phenomena fascinating because they represent transformation, vitality, and the mystery at the centre of my creativity. I want to explore how to visually convey inner power and life force, using both digital tools and painting techniques. I like experimenting with different tools to change an artwork. Comparing these two pieces shows how my intent shifts, much as a traditional artist might try out new media and methods. Alien Plasma Neo My first piece, Alien Plasma Neo, was all about hyper-definition and symmetry. I wanted to show this being at its highest energy, even down t...
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Social Networking and Teaching

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Simply put, Social Networking is big business.  In regards to schooling, there are high gains and big risks. Social Networking holds a significant skill-set which is increasingly becoming an important part of contemporary life. Students need to learn how to effectively and efficiently employ the tools for their working life. How do students gain the required skills set whilst advancing the required subject knowledge? Social Networking has added complexity to the teaching environment. It is not a question of open exploration, suck and see, or for the teacher to step aside and assume the role of a friend. The interconnecting role of a teacher and student should not be compromised. Teachers are the experts who set standards, who hold the knowledge required, who provide an instructional environment that enabled clarity of purpose.  This is not the era for teachers to provide a fuzzy environment where students have to guess what they need to know or are graded without knowledge of ...
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Anzac Day supports our continual efforts of invasion.

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--> ANZAC Day has ceased to be a day where we commit to 'never again'. Anzac Day has become a shallow glorification of Australia's capacity to make war. It is a celebration of Australia's capacity of invasion. In contemporary multicultural Australia Anzac Day is appearing as the last stand of our mono-cultural past. ANZAC Day should be a remembrance for the futility of war and to support efforts towards a pacifist Australia. It should not be employed by sporting leagues as a selling point to enable blockbusting displays of digger fortitude and bravery. Anzac Day is a celebration of protection, but what did the Anzacs protected us from? Who would have invaded Australia had Australia. What would have changed in Australia if we had not sent our military to Europe to be slaughtered. Why doesn't the bombing of Darwin gain more attention if Anzac Day is about the brave who stands by his mate? Anzac Day has moved from the regret of war to a he...
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Bill Henson is Innocence

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Bill Henson is innocence I recently received an Art Monthly (Australia) April 2009 edition as a present. Whilst in the past I collected and read such publications avidly I now read them only by chance. Interestingly in the edition there is an article by Paul Rapoport on a book by David Marr about Bill Henson the photographer. Bill Henson has been a controversial artist not because of any overt behavior but because of his subjects and how he portrays his subjects. The subjects are pubescent boys and girls and their portrayal is both sensual and interpreted sexuality. Bill Henson's photographs are well supported by the 'cultured elite' and by state and federally funded galleries. The issues are; Henson does poach his subjects from primary schools for a photo shoot and the Prime Minister described one of his nude pubescent girls as 'absolutely revolting'. The article defends both issues. The primary school poaching was dismissed as a 'fear-mongering fabricati...
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